Sunday, October 01, 2006

Don't Take No Guff

"Guff?!"

Anyway, i've been wondering what to make of the new John Smiths 'barred' campaign. Inititally it's neither as funny nor appealing as the previous campaigns; but starting with the latest ad I think it is starting to show some potential.

The basic premise is a blokes pub where the landlord keeps barring people who watch girly tv / bring in noisy gadgets etc. Initially I found it to be very disappointing, amusing; but it has had none of the mass appeal or style of the Peter Kay (or even Jack Dee) ads. The old pub stereotype feels dated, although I suppose that is part of the idea.

The gadget one however is slightly more adventurous, and is all the better for it. A lot of the ad's humour is in the way the barman appears, and in this ad they got it spot on; making it a surprise that's funny as well. If they make more of this campaign, they should use this one as the model.

3 comments:

fishnchimps@yahoo.co.uk
said...

It's a bit tough that this campaign has to follow Peter Kay's, but as the rules for advertising booze are tightened, the agencies are forced to become more imaginative. I'm not sure if JS would still be allowed to use a popular celeb like Peter Kay.

That's a good point. Are booze advertisers going to have to talk about what the drink is actually like? That would be interesting.For what it's worth, I wish the same people who assert that traditional advertising works so well would talk to that lot who insist it's dead.

It is tough, but they seem to have harked back to the days of the old "John Smith" ads somewhat.

I agree though that tightening rules do make it harder, but this ad seems less imaginative, not more.

I suppose though, that Peter Kay wasnt actually all that famous when he started the ads; he became huge during their run. Id say the guy (whose name I forget ironically) is actually more well known than Peter Kay was at the time of the first ad.

Look at Cig ads of the late 70s on, if we could get alcohol ads half that imaginative it could be great. I wish someone would introduce tight rules for haircare ads...

And it would be a great discussion wouldnt it. Might lead to some progress though.